alexdry33

@sappholives83 Is there a mouse in that cupboard?

I keep catching the cat coming out of this cabinet no matter how well I close it. It was funny at first, but I’m tired of having to wash everything in there before using it to get rid of litterbox feet germs.

@JocastaMoney The Duchess of Duke St. Made in the 70s when there were people alive who actually remembered what life was like at the beginning of the 20th century. Excellent. Stands up well.

Whichever amongst you suggested I should watch the Onegin Line, thank you. It is one of the best television programmes I have ever seen. youtu.be/F13CcJZbckw?si… I am asking now for another reccomendation, if you are able. New media is so moribund. Boring, dated, bereft of ideas. What is as good to watch as the Onegin line? What dramas made in the 1970's and 1980's beat Netflix?

@Pergament_F youtu.be/xL_sMXfzzyA?si…

Bertrand Arthur William Russell -The Brilliance of Mind and Heart We Encounter Once in Centuries Born on May 18, 1872, into an aristocratic British family, Bertrand Russell embodied a rare combination of intellectual genius and fearless independence. Marked by tragedy early in life - losing both his father and grandfather during childhood - he carried within himself an insatiable thirst for knowledge and truth. Russell was not merely a philosopher; he was a revolutionary thinker who reshaped logic, mathematics, and philosophy. His monumental collaboration with Alfred North Whitehead, Principia Mathematica, was an ambitious attempt to ground mathematics in pure logic, paving the way for modern analytic philosophy and computer science. Yet beyond his towering intellect, Russell was a man who wielded his razor-sharp wit and sardonic humor to illuminate the darkest corners of dogma and superstition. His famous "Celestial Teapot" analogy remains a perfect embodiment of skeptical inquiry and rational thought: "If I were to suggest that between the Earth and Mars there is a china teapot revolving about the sun in an elliptical orbit, nobody would be able to disprove my assertion... But if I were to say that, I should rightly be thought to be talking nonsense. The burden of proof lies upon the person making unfalsifiable claims." This simple yet profound metaphor challenges us to demand evidence for belief, to reject baseless faith, and to embrace reason. It stands as a beacon for critical thinking, science, and intellectual honesty. Russell was also a passionate advocate for peace and social justice -a fearless anti-war activist who risked imprisonment to oppose the horrors of World War I. For him, philosophy was not idle speculation but a call to transform the world, to make it kinder and fairer. In his personal life, Russell was complex, deeply human, and candid. Married four times, he was a husband, father, friend, intellectual sparring partner, and relentless seeker of truth. He acknowledged his own flaws and mistakes yet never ceased growing, evolving, and loving life in all its paradoxes. Here are some of his timeless words that continue to illuminate the world: "To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom." "Love is wise, hatred is foolish." "Philosophy, when truly alive, is nothing but a prayer of the mind." "Science can tell us how to build the atom bomb, but not whether we should do so." "Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions." Russell is the light in the darkness of misunderstanding - a symbol of the free spirit who refuses conformity. He proves that intellect and humor are inseparable - that profound thought can be both playful and liberating. Through him, we learn to be serious and lighthearted at once, to embrace life’s contradictions, to be brave in the pursuit of truth, and to hold faith in humanity. In sum, Bertrand Russell is a star burning bright in the night sky of doubt, a ghost reminding us that the world is bigger than our fears, and that there is always room for a smile - even in the weightiest philosophical debates.

Amid all the political chaos, the Sport remains focused on the real stories that matter to the good people of the UK.

@ThatAussieWoman @boswelltoday It’s a shame you include a picture of Cate McGregor, who doesn’t subscribe to the deny reality form of trans-ness. Cate has spoken out against men taking women’s spaces in sport and elsewhere.

I can't call these men 'Men' without risking serious legal repercussions, because they claim they have a 'Gender Identity' of woman. Anybody can call me a man risk-free. Because I'm a woman. #RepealTheGillardAmendments

@dolphinsands @trevorw1953 No D H Lawrence. My mother’s generation thought him the best of the twentieth century. No Patrick White, Nobel Prize and now unread out of schools.

@trevorw1953 No Brideshead, Love in Time of Cholera, Tomas Nevinson, Mayor of Casterbridge, Honorary Consul, Grand Meaulnes, Feast of the Goat, Augie March, Lord Jim etc. etc.

Who’s in, who’s out, and how many have you read? The story behind our 100 best novels list How many have I read? A large number, especially those considered 'classics'. theguardian.com/books/ng-inter…

@Peter_Fitz People who assert that men are women if they think they are, sound like loonies. No one wants to vote for the lunatic fringe or liars. That’s what will switch votes. The Democrats in the US now admit they won’t get back into power unless they sort themselves out on this issue.

Thoughts? Will this bring any votes into their tent, or not? In my view it will not, but am interested to hear what you think. #auspol

Sir Laurence Olivier reciting Sonnet 116 by William Shakespeare is very much an understated masterclass in performance poetry. (Absolute goosebumps.)

@timritchie @SenatorCash Only men can be trans women.

@SenatorCash You know the biggest threat to women and girls are men, not transwomen.

Biological women and girls deserve single sex spaces. That is just common sense.

A painting of the end of meritocracy: A meeting of the two largest economies and not one woman at the table.

@albo Fix the Sex Discrimination Act. Don’t force me to vote Liberal.

@janeclarejones Men also rape when not at war. Men rape.

Men rape in war. This is Feminism 101. If you are claiming that only 'the enemy's' men rape because 'the enemy' is uniquely savage and barbaric, that is not feminism, it is tribal patriarchal complicity. MEN. Rape. In. War.

@Jebadoo2 @DominicWaghorn Even better if Princess rode up and waved her sword around and took power.

Let’s be honest, if the King seizes power tomorrow and announces a return to absolute monarch most of us would be pretty alright with it.

It's all the fault of the English 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿. This French colony gone wrong has ruined continental Europe for over 8 centuries. It is an embarrassment to Western Civilization. England is a French startup that grew sentient, deleted its operating system, and has been terrorizing the neighbors ever since. In 1066, William the Conqueror didn't actually intend to create a global superpower; he was just looking for a damp, offshore storage unit for his extra knights. But somewhere between the Battle of Hastings and the invention of the lukewarm ale, the "Normandy Expansion Pack" glitched. What was supposed to be a lovely vineyard-adjacent outpost devolved into a chaotic, rain-soaked experiment in how many ways a human can boil a vegetable until it loses its will to live. For eight centuries, Continental Europe has been forced to play the role of the exhausted parent watching a toddler with a flamethrower. The English spent the entire Middle Ages trying to move back into their "parents' basement" in France, leading to the Hundred Years' War—which was essentially just a very long, very violent property dispute over who got the good patio furniture in Aquitaine. When they finally got evicted, they didn't just walk away; they decided that if they couldn't be French, they would make "Not Being French" their entire personality. They invented an entire Church just so a king could get a divorce, and they pivoted to a global empire primarily so they could find something—anything—with actual spice in it, only to bring those spices home and use them as decorative paperweights. The sheer audacity of the British project is breathtaking. They took a perfectly functional Romance-language foundation, dragged it through a hedge of Germanic gutturals, and created a linguistic Frankenstein that they now have the nerve to export back to us. For 800 years, they have sat on that island like a disgruntled tenant who refuses to join the neighborhood watch but insists on judging everyone’s lawn from behind a lace curtain. They spent centuries meddling in European affairs just to ensure no one else could have a nice time, only to eventually execute the ultimate "I’m leaving the party" dramatic exit with Brexit—which, let’s be real, was just the final, agonizing stage of a 1,000-year-old French colony finally admitting it’s too socially awkward to stay in the room. The tragedy of the Continent is that we are still dealing with the fallout of William’s bad weekend in 1066. We gave them the architecture, the wine, and the legal framework, and in return, they gave us the Industrial Revolution (which ruined the air), the concept of "The Weekend" (which ruined productivity), and the belief that a vacation consists of turning bright pink on a beach in Spain while yelling for a full English breakfast. England isn't a neighbor; it’s a French experiment that escaped the lab, moved into a cold shed, and decided to make its misery everyone else’s problem. We’ve been paying the "Norman Tax" in psychic damage for nearly a millennium, and quite frankly, we’re still waiting for the refund.

"They told two men who had presented themselves as women that they would not be playing in the women's competition. No tribunal. No twelve-month review process. No crisis communications consultant. No weeping press conference. They cited Section 42 of the Sex Discrimination Act, the men's representatives mumbled something and withdrew, and the women played netball. The earth continued to rotate on its axis. Nobody died."

Thank you to Australian public intellectual, Professor Clive Hamilton AM, for voicing public support for Dr Andrew Amos, @salltweets, @aytchellesse and me in his Substack article: clivehamilton1.substack.com/p/gender-ideol… @Mark_Butler_MP @AngusTaylorMP @PaulineHansonOz @DavidCrisafulli @TimNichollsMP

Every baby born in Iran is screened for 56 metabolic disorders — for free. The tech behind it? Nuclear. Built by Iranian scientists. Iran is one of only 5 countries in the world producing these kits. This is just one example of our peaceful nuclear technology.

That would be chic!

@VeryBrexitProbs @Allexia05 The gavel? Only used by auctioneers in the UK. And you e got habeas corpus twice.

@Allexia05 lol! Happy to be of service 😉

Watching King Charles and Trump together this week was a reminder of just how many things the US inherited from the UK. The state banquet covered maybe ten of them. The actual list is a little longer: 🇬🇧➡️🇺🇸 The English language The Latin alphabet English spelling (pre-Webster) English grammar The common law system Trial by jury Habeas corpus The presumption of innocence Due process The right to a fair trial The adversarial court system Judges in robes The gavel Legal precedent Stare decisis Property law Contract law Tort law Estate law Wills Power of attorney Land titles Deeds The Magna Carta tradition The Bill of Rights concept Parliamentary procedure Robert's Rules of Order Bicameral legislatures The Senate (modelled on the House of Lords) The Speaker of the House role The filibuster Committees Hansard-style records The loyal opposition concept Separation of powers (via Locke and Montesquieu, but English tradition) The Westminster system as a starting point Christianity as the dominant faith The Protestant work ethic The King James Bible Methodism Quakerism Baptism Anglicanism (became the Episcopal Church) Presbyterianism Congregationalism Puritanism Sunday as a day of rest Church weddings Christian burial traditions Christmas Easter Christmas trees (via Germany via Victoria, but arrived through Britain) Christmas carols Mince pies Christmas pudding (mostly forgotten but exists) Father Christmas (became Santa Claus) Easter eggs Hot cross buns Wedding rings White wedding dresses (Victoria again) The bouquet toss The wedding cake Bridesmaids Best man Funeral wreaths Tombstones The handshake Saying "please" and "thank you" Standing for elders Holding doors open Queueing (badly) "How do you do" as a greeting First names and surnames in that order The "Junior" and "III" naming convention Titles like Mr, Mrs, Miss Doctor as a title Reverend Honourable The handshake on a deal Signing contracts Witnesses on documents Notaries Public schools (the concept) Universities Colleges Harvard (founded by Cambridge graduates) Yale, Princeton, Columbia (all British colonial) Caps and gowns at graduation Mortarboards Honorary degrees The PhD Fraternities and sororities (Greek, but via Oxbridge clubs) Boarding schools House systems in schools School uniforms Class prefects (residual) The three-term academic year Recess Detention Spelling bees (British origin) Reading, writing, arithmetic The blackboard Cursive handwriting Letter writing The postal service Stamps Mailboxes Addresses with house numbers Streets named after things Pubs (became bars and taverns) Inns Tea Coffee houses (originally a London thing) Beer Ale Whisky tradition (Scottish/Irish) Gin Cider Pub games Darts Billiards Snooker (kind of) Pool tables Card games Whist Bridge Poker (debatable but English roots) Chess (via Britain) Cricket (briefly, before baseball ate it) Baseball (descended from rounders and cricket) Football (the rugby version, which became American football) Rugby Soccer (the word and the game) Tennis Golf Horse racing Foxhunting (briefly) Boxing (Queensberry rules) Wrestling Rowing Sailing Yachting Pigeon racing Dog shows Crufts-style breed standards Most dog breeds Sheepdogs Foxhounds Beagles Bulldogs Most cat breeds Horse breeds Thoroughbreds The Derby Sunday roast Roast beef Roast chicken Roast potatoes Yorkshire pudding (vanished) Gravy Stuffing Pies (the savoury kind, mostly mutated) Pot pie Shepherd's pie Apple pie (English originally) Pumpkin pie (English roots, American twist) Mince pies Custard Trifle Pudding (the word) Cookies (called biscuits) Cakes Sponge cake Pound cake Fruit cake Sandwiches The Earl of Sandwich Toast Marmalade Jam Preserves Pickles (via Britain) Mustard Worcestershire sauce HP sauce (limited) Salt and vinegar (chips) Fish and chips (became "fish fry") Chips (became fries) Crisps (became chips) Bacon Sausages Black pudding (vanished) Bangers and mash (vanished) Bread and butter pudding Porridge (became oatmeal) The English breakfast (became "American breakfast" in modified form) Scones (became biscuits) Muffins (became English muffins) Crumpets (sort of) Tea cakes Buns Loaves Sourdough (English roots, not just San Francisco) The pub Sunday lunch concept Fish on Friday Bank holidays (became federal holidays) Sunday trading laws (residual blue laws) Thanksgiving (Puritan harvest festival) Halloween (Celtic via Britain via Ireland) Bonfire night (vanished) Guy Fawkes (vanished but the V mask remains) May Day (residual) Boxing Day (vanished) New Year's Eve traditions Auld Lang Syne (Scottish) Mother's Day (English origin, US adaptation) Father's Day (similar) Valentine's Day (English custom) April Fool's Day Saint Patrick's Day (Irish via UK union) The pound (as a weight) The mile The foot The inch The yard The acre The gallon (different gallon, but inherited) Fahrenheit (German via Britain) The 12-hour clock with AM/PM Common time signatures in music Sheet music notation The piano (via Europe via Britain) Brass bands Marching bands Christmas carols Hymns Folk music tradition Ballads Sea shanties Nursery rhymes Mother Goose Twinkle Twinkle Little Star Mary Had a Little Lamb Humpty Dumpty Jack and Jill London Bridge Ring a Ring o' Roses Fairy tales Robin Hood King Arthur Beowulf (academic) Shakespeare Chaucer Dickens The novel as a form The detective novel (Conan Doyle) Sherlock Holmes The English country house mystery The school story The adventure novel Treasure Island Robinson Crusoe Gulliver's Travels Alice in Wonderland Peter Pan The Wind in the Willows Winnie the Pooh Mary Poppins Christopher Robin Beatrix Potter Roald Dahl (post-WWII but huge) The pantomime tradition (vanished mostly) Music hall (became vaudeville) Vaudeville (Anglo-French) The variety show Stand-up comedy roots The sitcom format Punch magazine humour Political cartoons The cartoon strip The newspaper The broadsheet The tabloid Editorial pages Letters to the editor Op-eds Crossword puzzles (American invention but English wordplay roots) The Times-style serif typography Garamond, Times New Roman, Caslon — English/European typefaces The hardcover book The paperback Public libraries The Dewey Decimal System (American but library tradition is English) Bookstores The university press Academic journals Peer review The scientific method (English/European) The Royal Society tradition (became American Philosophical Society etc) Most named scientific units (Newton, Watt, Kelvin, Faraday) Newton's laws Darwin's theory of evolution Most basic chemistry nomenclature Most basic physics nomenclature The metric system rejection (uniquely shared with Britain… until Britain switched) Engineering tradition The steam engine (became railroads) Railroads The locomotive The train station The platform The ticket inspector Steamships Ocean liners The merchant navy concept Lighthouses Lifeboats Coastguards The Royal Navy tradition (became US Navy structure) Naval ranks Army ranks Military uniforms (red coats aside) The salute The drill sergeant Boot camp concept West Point modelled on Sandhurst Annapolis modelled on naval colleges Military bands Bagpipes (in some regiments) The bugle call Reveille Taps (American but British camp roots) The 21-gun salute Trooping the colour (residual ceremonial) The Marine Corps tradition Most ranks: Private, Corporal, Sergeant, Lieutenant, Captain, Major, Colonel, General Court-martial Articles of war The Geneva Convention adherence The chain of command Saluting the flag The flag itself (Stars and Stripes — derived from British East India Company flag, debated) Pledges of allegiance National anthems sung at events (To Anacreon in Heaven was a London tune) The Star Spangled Banner's tune is English "America (My Country, 'Tis of Thee)" uses "God Save the King" The Boy Scouts (Baden-Powell) The Girl Guides (became Girl Scouts) The Salvation Army The YMCA (English origin) The YWCA Rotary Clubs (American but masonic English roots) Freemasonry The Order of Odd Fellows Banking (modern banking is English/Italian via Britain) The bank cheque Promissory notes Stock exchanges The corporation Limited liability Joint stock companies Insurance (Lloyd's of London) Marine insurance Life insurance The mortgage Rent Leases Tenancies Landlords Real estate The auction Estate agents (became realtors) Auctioneers Stock tickers (American but City of London style) Banker's hours Double-entry bookkeeping (Italian but via Britain) Audit Chartered accountants The financial year Tax law structure Income tax (British invention, 1799) Tariffs Customs Excise Stamp duty The cabinet system The Speaker of the House The Lord Speaker → Senate President pro tempore The Whip system Cabinet ministers Departments of state The Treasury The Foreign Office (became State Department) The Home Office concept The civil service The bureaucracy The mayor The town council The county The sheriff The constable The bailiff The coroner The magistrate The justice of the peace The grand jury The petit jury Indictments Subpoenas Warrants Habeas corpus The bench The bar Barristers and solicitors merged into "lawyers" or "attorneys" Wigs (briefly, then dropped) The black robe The witness stand Swearing on the Bible "I do solemnly swear" Marriage vows "I do" The honeymoon The bridal veil The bouquet The garter toss Horseshoes for luck Throwing rice Tying cans to cars Saying "I love you" Greeting cards Christmas cards (English invention, 1843) Birthday cards Get well cards Postcards The fountain pen The ballpoint (Hungarian via Britain) The typewriter (American but English keyboard layout) QWERTY (American actually, but for English) The dictionary (Johnson's, then Webster's adaptation) The encyclopedia (Britannica) The thesaurus (Roget) Grammar textbooks Spelling rules Cursive script Italics Bold type Punctuation conventions The semicolon The colon The full stop (period) Quotation marks Apostrophes Most idioms in American English "Raining cats and dogs" "Spill the beans" "Bite the bullet" "Break the ice" "Cost an arm and a leg" "Once in a blue moon" Most proverbs Most riddles Most jokes structures Knock-knock jokes (English origin) Most card game vocabulary Most pub vocabulary The word "OK" (debated, but English roots) The phrase "All right" Cheers as a toast The toast tradition itself Champagne for celebrations (French via England) Wine traditions Port and sherry (gone) Sundowners (gone, mostly) The cocktail (English/American hybrid) The cocktail party The dinner party The hostess The toastmaster Speeches at events Eulogies The wake Mourning clothes Black at funerals White at weddings Confetti The bouquet Bunting at parties Streamers Balloons (rubber tech, but party use is British) Fireworks (Chinese, but British public use) 4th of July fireworks (replaced Bonfire Night) The parade tradition Marching bands The Mayor's parade Floats The town hall meeting The village green concept (became "the commons") The town square The courthouse on the square The clock tower Church steeples Sunday morning church bells The wedding peal The funeral toll The vicarage (became parsonage) The parish system (residual) Sunday school Bible study groups Hymn books Pews Pulpits Stained glass windows Gothic architecture in churches Neoclassical architecture (via Britain via Greece/Rome) Georgian architecture Victorian architecture The white picket fence (English garden tradition) The lawn The hedge The garden Garden parties The greenhouse Allotments (residual, "community gardens") Lawnmowers Garden gnomes (German via Britain) Hedge mazes Topiary Ivy on walls Ivy League itself (the ivy tradition) The college campus quadrangle The cloister The chapel The dining hall The refectory High table (vanished) College colours College mottos in Latin The class ring tradition The tassel The valedictorian The salutatorian "Pomp and Circumstance" (Elgar) at graduations Most ceremonial music "Auld Lang Syne" at New Year "Happy Birthday" derivatives Most lullabies Most folk dances Square dancing (English country dancing) Maypole dancing (vanished) Morris dancing (vanished) The waltz (Austrian via Britain) Ballet (French/Italian via Britain) Opera (Italian via Britain) The orchestra The conductor The string quartet The choir The choirmaster The organist Cathedral music tradition Boys' choirs Hymn singing Congregational singing The Christmas carol service Lessons and carols The advent calendar (German via Britain) Advent wreaths The Christmas stocking Mistletoe Holly and ivy The Yule log Father Christmas (Santa via Coca-Cola but English roots) Christmas pudding Christmas crackers (vanished mostly) Pulling crackers (vanished) The paper crown (vanished) Cracker jokes (vanished) The Queen's Speech (vanished, replaced by State of the Union) Trooping the Colour (replaced by July 4 parades) Most parliamentary terminology Most legal terminology Most academic terminology Most ceremonial terminology Most aristocratic terminology (residual in some Southern states) The plantation system (English colonial) Slavery's legal framework (English colonial law) Indentured servitude The land grant The patent system Copyright (Statute of Anne, 1710) Trademark law Intellectual property concept The press freedom principle The free speech tradition Freedom of religion (Puritan dissent) Freedom of assembly The right to petition The right to bear arms (English Bill of Rights 1689) Trial by peers "Innocent until proven guilty" Burden of proof Reasonable doubt The Miranda warning structure (American but rights are English) The arrest The booking The mugshot The fingerprint (English science) Forensics (British origin) Sherlock Holmes-style detection Scotland Yard imitations (FBI, etc.) Police forces themselves (Robert Peel) "Cops" (from "coppers", British slang) The beat The patrol The night watch The constable The detective Plain-clothes officers The detective novel The thriller The spy novel (le Carré, Fleming) James Bond Most spy tradecraft language "MI6"-style intelligence framing (CIA modelled partly) The Special Relationship itself NATO membership tradition The United Nations (Anglo-American framework) The League of Nations before it International law tradition Diplomatic protocol Embassies Ambassadors Consuls Diplomatic immunity The State visit The 21-gun salute The red carpet The receiving line The official photograph The official portrait The Oval Office desk (Resolute desk, gift from Queen Victoria) White House architecture (Georgian) Capitol Hill architecture (neoclassical) The Supreme Court building (neoclassical) The Lincoln Memorial style (Greek revival via Britain) The Washington Monument (obelisk, via Britain via Egypt) Most monumental architecture before 1930 Cathedrals modelled on English ones The cemetery as a park (Victorian invention) Gravestones in English style Latin epitaphs Stone angels The mausoleum The crypt The grave plot The funeral procession The hearse Black ribbons Half-mast flags Memorial services The eulogy The 21-gun salute at military funerals "Taps" at military funerals (American melody, British practice) The folded flag presentation The white glove tradition The dress uniform The medal The ribbon bar Knighthoods (rejected) → Medal of Honor (kept the spirit) The Order of the Bath → Presidential Medal of Freedom structure Decorations and citations Battlefield commissions "For valour" inscriptions The Victoria Cross influenced the Medal of Honor Most military ceremonial You're welcome.

@dieworkwear They’re not ‘outfits’. That’s the school uniform.

The way the outfits here create flashes of blue and white is very mesmerizing.